Fall from grace

Genesis 3. Apparently “more crafty” than the other animals, the serpent in the garden sets about creating mischief. (The Notes refer to the serpent as a “trickster”.) It tells the woman that she should eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and when she remarks that God said that they would die if they did, it assures her:

You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Interestingly, we read that she also gives some to her husband, “who was with her”. She takes the lead in this venture; he is merely a participant. Now embued with the knowledge of good and evil they realise that they are naked, and sew some fig leaves together to preserve their new-found modesty. Shame has come into the world: they hide from God when he comes to take a stroll in the garden in the evening. (Note that this is the origin of clothing, usually associated with a state of at least relative “civilisation”.)

Surely they also hide because they know that they have disobeyed his direct order. Feelings of guilt and fear of reprisal cause both to blame the other for the transgression. Confronted by God the man blames the woman and, indirectly, God, since God “gave [the woman] to be with me”. The woman in turn blames the serpent’s trickery.

God promptly punishes the lot.

• The serpent is condemned to sail on its belly and eat dust, and be in an eternal state of mutual antagonism with humans.
• The woman’s childbearing pangs “will greatly increase”, though she will still desire her husband, and he will rule over her.
• The ground is cursed because of the man, “thorns and thistles it will bring forth for [him]“; he will produce his food with toil -
  

  until you return to the ground,
  for out of it you were taken;
  you are dust,
  and to dust you shall return

Note that the punishment for the woman entails a worsening of the birth pangs - so she would have brought forth children in pain even in the garden of Eden. The man’s special relationship with the ground, out of which he was fashioned, is now turned into a struggle with it to get it to bring forth food. It is as if it (and nature) now has a will of its own, that naturally runs contrary to what man wants and needs of it. No more just reaching out and plucking fruit of the boughs …

All is not doom and gloom though. The man finally gives his wife a first name: Eve - “because she was the mother of all living”. And God himself fashions “garments of skins” (definitely preferable compared to loincloths of fig leaves) for the naked fallen ones, a gesture of benevolence.

God says that man has “become like one of us, knowing good and evil” (as the serpent said they would) - humans have acquired and retain a divine aspect even though fallen from grace. They are specifically driven from Eden to prevent them from going one step further and eating from the tree of life, and becoming immortal. The Notes put it this way: they are prevented from “complet[ing] the transition to deities”.

Guards are set up to prevent the humans from returning to Eden. Somehow I remembered this to be an angel with a flaming sword: instead it is a cherubim and “a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life”. The cherubim does not hold the sword, the sword is a separate entity.

So there we have it: the original sin - disobedience - and its results. The upshot of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is that humans first experience shame, guilt and punishment and, also, first becomes aware of sexuality. They are driven from the shelter of the garden of Eden, and from God’s presence. But, as the serpent said, they do not die.

God again shows that he is fallible: he allows a “crafty” animal with the powers of persuasion and temptation to exist in the garden, and the man and Eve have the ability to take an action that is contrary to God’s stated wishes. He should have known that having a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, along with the points just mentioned, could only have one outcome. Also, God does not know immediately of the transgression; he deduces it from the “unnatural” behaviour if the humans.

(The criticism in the paragraph above can only really be levelled if we don’t read this story as a myth, and demand a certain kind of logic from it. See Mythology.)

Point to ponder: although Eve is tempted by the serpent, she makes the decision to eat the fruit, knowing full well that it is forbidden. She has a capacity for wrong-doing, and so does Adam, since he eats the fruit she gives him. “Sin is lurking at the door”, God tells Cain, “you must master it”. Instead he lets it in. Human beings have this capacity for evil built in. It seems strange that God would make his creatures so fallible. Although “free will” is not mentioned as such, humans seem to have that from the beginning; it is what enables the choice between good and evil deeds and thoughts.

Notes:

• God makes Adam and Eve “garments of skin” - this indicates that the first animals must have been slaughtered, otherwise where did the skins come from?
• Adam and Eve have become “like us” God says; once again pointing to the existence of other divine beings (and proving that not everything the serpent said was a lie).
• According to the Notes cherubim are “mixed, liminal creatures combining human, animal and bird traits”, and are related to the Egyptian sphinx and the Mesopotamian karibu.
• No reason is given for the serpent’s behaviour: it appears simply to be inclined to evil.

Image: The Expulsion from Paradise by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 – 1564)
Note angel with sword & Adam & Eve’s nudity

~ by tamfuwing on May 5, 2008.